商品簡介
Between adulation and hostility, historians have struggled to achieve a balance in their interpretation of Louis XIV. In this new history, Geoffrey Treasure expertly manages to achieve this balance by setting Louis in the style and thinking of the period. Geoffrey Treasure explores a unique combination of a personal philosophy, moulded by absolutist thinking and propaganda, and by Marzarin's deliberate training. He examines the influences and traits which permitted the growth of this particular exercise of power and its descent into an absolutism that ultimately set France on the road to 1789. Also providing powerful sketches of the leading figures, Colbert, Bossuet, Fenelon, Mme de Maintenon and many others, Treasure helps to evaluate the propaganda and detach Louis from the image and the 'spin'. Geoffrey Treasure's compelling history shows that it is possible to enter fully into the spirit and temper of the age while still offering an objective study of Louis as a person and as a ruler. Anyone interested in the French 'Grand Siecle' period or 17th century European history.
